


For the love of a jumper

by SilverLynxx



Series: Rush Prompt Fics [10]
Category: Rush (2013)
Genre: Fluff, M/M, clothes thievery, prompt!fic, short!fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-22
Updated: 2014-12-22
Packaged: 2018-03-02 18:14:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 727
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2821577
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilverLynxx/pseuds/SilverLynxx
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>James' shirts and jumpers have a tendency to disappear, and it takes a while before he figures out where they're going.</p>
            </blockquote>





	For the love of a jumper

**Author's Note:**

> Anonymous prompt on Tumblr;  
>  _Niki likes to wear James' giant shirts and jumpers even though he looks small (bud adorable) in them, which never fails to turn James on._

James doesn’t notice in the beginning, but it is the beginning of a year-long mystery.

It starts in the most innocuous way, when he’s stood in the paddock with several other drivers and Clay points out “You’re, ah, looking a little swamped in that jumper there, Niki.”

He can’t actually see Niki, but it doesn’t strike him as unusual since the Austrian’s weight tended to fluctuate during the race season anyway. James merely bemoans the loss of Niki’s small pudgy winter belly in his head, and obliviously continues his conversation with Depailler as his first hint passes him by.

Then it’s spontaneously vanishing clothing; shirts and jumpers not being where he left them and reappearing in parts of his shared flat he doesn’t remember venturing to, and that’s if they reappeared at all.

Amidst searching for one of his most beloved shirts, James even cleans the living room as he goes in hopes it would help, but to no avail.

“Have you seen my Franklin and Marshall t-shirt, Ratty?” James asks bewildered, shuffling around the armchair where he was sure he had thrown it to be washed the night before.

“No” Niki replies curtly from the couch where he’s curled up with a book. James lets out a heavy sigh and moves on to look somewhere else. He doesn’t hear Niki hastily zipping up his jumper.

On one occasion he’s lucky enough to spy one of his missing items of clothing on the end of Niki’s bed when his absent flatmate leaves his door open. He snags it and mentally chides his drunk self for somehow getting his clothes mixed up with Niki’s. He doesn’t notice Niki’s double-take when he comes home to James wearing the same shirt later that day.

Yet small victories aside, the problem of disappearing clothing continues and James gets no closer to finding an answer, or some of his shirts for that matter.

As it approaches mid-December the Brit begins to feel the nip of the winter weather invading the flat. It reaches the point that even the festive warmth of the tinsel, holly, and other seasonal knickknacks he’s scattered throughout the flat can’t keep it at bay.

It was in these rare times of desperation that James went hunting for a few extra layers.

He’s fruitlessly rummaging through various bundles of clothing when he hears the creak of the floorboards behind him, and without looking up he calls out hopefully to his flatmate.

“Niki have you seen my favourite cardigan, the big woolly grey one?”

“Uh,”

He drops the clothes he’s holding back onto the floor and turns around, only to find Niki stood guiltily by the couch _wearing_ said cardigan.

James’ first observation is it’s ridiculously big on him, the sleeves bunched up at his wrists and the bottom reaching half-way down his thighs, it drowns Niki’s slight figure in perhaps the most adorable way. In fact, he looked _swamped_. Suddenly the mystery of his missing clothing is not so much a mystery anymore. 

Niki coughs and babbles with his hands, and James feels a smile twitching on his lips, overriding his shock, as his friend tries to pull together some excuse as to why he is wearing his flatmate’s jumper of all things. But an excuse is the last thing James is interested in as he licks his lower lip and promptly interrupts the Austrian by clearing his throat. With a perfectly deep baritone he says; “I think my floor would like it back,”

Niki bobs his head and moves briskly to take off the jumper, but James stops him by saying his name with a smirk. His eyes snap up in confusion, but rather than answer James merely tilts his head in the direction of his bedroom door.

“Oh,” Niki mutters when realisation dawns, and doesn’t stop James when the blond stalks over in three long steps and smashes their lips together.  James can taste warmth and the bitter tang of black coffee on Niki’s tongue, and it’s the most exquisite thing as they go stumbling back into the bedroom, chuckling into the others mouth when James bashes his shoulder against the doorframe and mutters a curse without once separating them. They tumble onto the bed, and the laughter quickly descends into breathless panting.

Strangely, the jumper is the only article of clothing that doesn’t find the floor.


End file.
